Appalachian History

1. Appalachian History Introducing Appalachian Studies

2. Native Americans • Native Americans had been living in Appalachia for 3,000 years prior to European contact. •  Iroquois: 1300B.C. from West; split into Northern Iroquois and Southern Cherokee. • Yuchi Indians in Southwest Virginia, assimilated into Cherokee society prior to much of the recorded history of native peoples. • The “Peoples of Appalachia” section willaddress Cherokee culture

3. Cherokee • 1700-1761: contact and conflict escalates as Europeans seek settlement expansion and skins for trading • 1761: final defeat of Cherokee by British; white expansion increases rapidly • People & Nature • Cherokee: language, names, religious beliefs based upon relationship between people and environment; humans part of natural world, not superior • Europeans: urged by God to conquer nature and be its master • Indian Removal Act of 1831 • 1/4 of Cherokees die on 1838 trek westward; Trail of Tears • Some escaped to mountains of North Carolina, settled in Qualla Boundary

4. European Settlement • First half of 18th century in Great Valley of VA • Immigrant populations grow, conquest of Indian lands, land speculation in Appalachia all contribute • Blue Ridge Mountains and Great Valley become American frontier prior to Revolutionary War • Flow into Appalachia in 18th century: central valley of Pennsylvania, Piedmont of North Carolina, western Pennsylvania • Earliest immigrants (1720) from eastern Pennsylvania were German and Scots-Irishinto Shenandoah Valley, eventually expanding to Carolina Piedmont, then to southwestern VA, western NC, and eastern TN • By 1760, western PA sends German, Scots-Irish

5. Ulster Plantation • King James VI of Scotland (King James I of England) • United thrones of England, Scotland, and Ireland in 1603 • Promoted "plantation of Ireland" by lowland Scots and some English to subdue Catholic Irish • Many Scots were Presbyterian: persecuted by Episcopal Church of Ireland, Catholics, and Anglican Church • Eventually left for religious, economic (linen industry depression), and rack-renting (renting to the highest bidder) reasons • By the way, this is the King James of the KingJames version of the Christian Bible and ruledDuring the latter portion of the writings of William Shakespeare

6. Appalachia & the New Nation • Small number of British (many Welsh) migrate from east coast of VA in mid-1700s; some with slaves • African American population at 10% prior to Civil War; higher in some areas  • Tension between small mountain farmers and flatland plantation owners begins early and would remain • Feeling of Appalachian alienation leading up to Revolutionary War led to hostility toward political elites • Appalachians eventually supported war due to desire for religious freedom (Germans)or hatred of British royalty (Scots-Irish)

7. Kings Mountain • Turning point in Revolutionary War – October 7, 1780 • Patriot vs. Loyalist Militia – a “civil” war of mostly Americans • Patriots: William Campbell (VA)--commander, Isaac Shelby (TN), John Sevier (TN), Benjamin Cleveland (NC), James Williams (SC), Edward Lacey (SC), Frederick Hambright (NC), Joseph McDowell (NC), Joseph Winston (NC) • Loyalist: Major Patrick Ferguson— only British army officer in battle • Challenge to Patriot leaders from Ferguson: Lay down arms or I’ll “lay waste to their country with fire and sword” • The bayonet charge from Ferguson proved Unsuccessful and Ferguson shot from his horse • 65-minute battle ending in Patriot victory

8. Kings Mountain

9. Preindustrial Appalachia • Small, open-country communities and scattered settlements prior to industrialization • Self-sufficiency, socially and economically • Shared identity, common ideals and values, shared work and church provides unity • Contradicting Appalachian isolation as reason for strong community • First 2/3 of 19th century, Appalachia was no more isolated than other rural areas • Economy • Non-commercial, self-sufficient farms;some evidence that farming for externalmarket took place • Salt works, iron foundries, copper mines,tanneries existed - some industry

10. Preindustrial Appalachia (cont.) • Appalachian farmers relied on family labor: build homesteads, cultivate orchards and livestock pastures, garden, graze hogs, raise turkeys and geese • Most common crop: corn (milled and "liquified") • Family was center of pre-industrial life; framework for education and social order • Gender and age roles clearly defined • Patriarchal society, but women maintainedstrong, influential positions within family • Social activities: • Church • Community work: house/barnconstruction; clearing new ground; harvesting crops; preserving food; hog butchering; husking corn; roadbuilding/maintenance; etc.

11. Civil War & Reconstruction • Slavery as a component of controversy in Appalachia during Civil War • Fewer than 1 in 10 whites owned slaves in region (1 in 4 in South), but yes, it did exist in the mountains • Slavery largely in bigger valleys in VA and TN • Industrial slavery existed in tanning works, salt mines, iron foundries of VA and brick mills of TN and KY • Quakers & Germans in Appalachia opposedslavery on moral, ethical, and religiousgrounds; majority of people opposed forpolitical, economic reasons • Stay with Union or side with Confederacy? • Pitted community against community, county against county, etc.

12. Civil War & Reconstruction • Strongest areas of Unionist sentiment: western counties of VA, East TN, western North Carolina, eastern KY • The Great Divide: 1/3 of Appalachia's residents sided with Union, 1/3 with Confederacy, 1/3 neutral • 1861: 27 counties declared secession of their state illegal; became West Virginia in 1863 • Confederate sentiment: strongest in valleys of Appalachia and in mountain counties closeto flatlands in Blue Ridge of VA and western NC; economic/political elite • "Living off the land": Both Union & Confederate soldiers destroyed crops and livestock, robbed and burned homes, killed civilians, causing widespread hunger

13. Conscription • April 1862 – Confederate conscription (or draft) • Exempted “one potential soldier for every twenty slaves owned by a family” • Angered small-scale farmers, who called it a rich man's war, and a poor man's fight • Upset balance between community needs and needs of confederacy • 1863 – Federal draft ensured that Union areas of Appalachia suffered the same fate • As a result, transportation system fell into Disrepair as well as other infrastructure elements

14. Civil War & Reconstruction • Lincoln promised support after war's end, but assassinated • Political situation during Reconstruction left mountain counties (traitors to the Confederacy) neglected: transportation, public school, public services • By 1880s, Appalachia was discovered by northern and foreign investors, interested in natural resources • Writers, missionary workers, teachersaccompanied capitalists • The result was a new picture of Appalachia thatstressed poverty and cultural backwardness

15. Early Industrialization • Stereotype of unchanged frontier culture: noble savages • Independent, proud, rugged, violent, dirty, uneducated, crafty, practical, drank too much, lazy, large families, etc., as described by outsiders • Local Color Movement begins • Appalachia was a region in stark contrast to progressive, urban culture of rest of US • Responses to emerging image of Appalachia • Middle-class women from northeastsought to educate mountain people • Cultural preservation (ballad collecting, etc.) • Economic development and industrialization • Culture becomes commodity

16. Early Industrialization • From 1865 to 1920: US becomes world's largest industrial nation • Demand for labor, minerals, timber • The "coming of the roads" (railroads) between 1870 and 1910 • Coal became most valuable natural resource; innovations in iron and steel making created demand • Mine owners and operators: • College educated • Middle or upper-middle class • Close ties to railroads • Largely outsiders • Established company town system;wielded great political and economic power • Workers: native Appalachians, African Americans, immigrants from southern/eastern Europe

17. Impact of Industrialization • African Americans moved to mine coal in great numbers to West Virginia and eastern TN • Coal camps were segregated; mine work was not • Italians, Poles, and Slavs also provided labor • By 1900, immigrants had largely replaced native workforce • Work conditions: • Low wages (average of $2.00 a day in 1900) • Unsafe work conditions: explosions,poor ventilation, coal dust in the air,rock and roof falls • Company towns became necessary to promote industrialization due to level of immigration • From 1880 to 1930, over 600 company towns; 5-to-1 over independent towns in Appalachia

18. Impact of Industrialization • Life in company towns varied: • quality of housing • degree of overcrowding • quality of sanitation and recreation • policies of company store • degree to which company sought to control people's activities • Other industries during period • timber • textiles • railroading • non-coal mineral mining • chemical production • Industry largely affected the region's economic situation negatively due to absentee corporations

19. The Great Depression & New Deal • Farming prior to the Great Depression • Appalachia – 3% of U.S. Land area • According to 1930 Census – 1/3 of “self-sufficing” farms • Self-sufficing farm is where the value of the [home] farm products used by the family was 50 percent or more of the total value of all products of the farm • Income < $100 per year on self-sufficing farms • Some barely affected by Depression, but wagelaborers would feel the impacts deeply

20. The Great Depression & New Deal • Depression of the 1930s began earlier in Appalachia when industry collapsed from overproduction and competition • Couldn't return to agriculture; couldn't pursue other opportunities • Mid-1920s to early 1940s--Appalachia's Great Depression • End of 1930s: 75% of mountain population receiving government assistance • Many moved north; many stayed in inactive coal camps • 1933's New Deal--didn't end hard times, buthelped • 1935: Wagner Act allows unions to be formedand that right to be federally protected • Tennessee Valley Authority begins to regulate riverflooding, restore eroded land, produce fertilizers, etc.

21. The Great Depression and New Deal • 1949: TVA builds 9 coal-powered electrical generating plants • Push toward recent development of strip-mining

22. Appalachia at Midcentury & Beyond • World War II and effects on mountain people • People uprooted and exposed to world away from home in record numbers • Greater sense of difference and, sometimes, a feeling of inferiority • Some would leave Appalachia afterward for better jobs; great out-migration to North and Midwest in 1950s and 1960s • For some, it expanded horizons, aspirations, and attitudes • Technological improvements during WWII eventually led to decline in workers; 476,000 coal miners in 1940 and less than 200,000 in 1960 • Between 1945 and 1965, nearly 3.5 million people left for Cincinnati, Detroit, Columbus, Chicago, Cleveland, Indianapolis, Baltimore; They were often called “briers”

23. Appalachia at Midcentury & Beyond • 1950s: Appalachia rediscovered in media reports highlighting poverty • Democratic Presidential nomination of 1960: JFK, Lyndon Johnson, and Hubert Humphrey visit mountains • Media attention was huge following the election; Appalachia generally presented negatively • Appalachians resented images of isolation, backwardness, ignorance, and pathetic impoverishment • The outside feeling that Appalachia was in America, but not of America • 1963: Johnson pledges to fulfill Kennedy's programs and Appalachian Regional Development Act is passed • Appalachian Regional Commission created by the bill and War on Poverty begins • Four areas of ARC: highway construction, resource development, flood control and water tower projects, improvements in human services

24. Appalachia at Midcentury & Beyond • ARC includes 393 counties in 13 states from New York to Mississippi originally • Other Programs: OEO, VISTA, Head Start • Although these programs were largely unsuccessful, Appalachians began to see their own potential to create change; swelling of regional pride and identification with "Appalachia" • Appalachia remains a contradiction in America: a region rich in natural resources yet a land of great poverty.